


The Chosen One

by merryghoul



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: 1960s, Fae & Fairies, Field Trip, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-26
Updated: 2015-10-26
Packaged: 2018-04-28 05:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5080063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In 1969, Melody meets a friend who offers to take her to New York to find her parents.  River has to stop them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Chosen One

**Author's Note:**

> \- corrected a few spelling errors  
> \- prompt: evil Faeries (in this case, the ones from the Torchwood episode "Small Worlds")

Melody's last crayon broke. That was when she started crying uncontrollably.

Several months ago, in the summer of 1969, Melody found her parents. She found the Doctor. She tried to warn them, as well as others, about the Silence. But her parents and the Doctor didn't recognise her, no matter what she did. And no one believed her about the Silence. After they had left her again, she was alone, save for a few Silent priests that tended to her in an otherwise abandoned orphanage.

Out of nowhere, a being with butterfly wings appeared. It glowed in the darkness of this orphanage. The being handed her a box of eight crayons. 

Melody sniffed. She stopped crying and took the crayons. "Thank--"

The being silenced Melody. It shook its head at her.

"You don't want me to say that to you."

The being nodded.

"Will you stay with me?"

The being did.

 

Melody was aware of New York City because of television. She realised a lot of shows were filmed live on various sound stages in the city. She came up with the idea to escape the orphanage and go to New York City. There, she'd go on television and tell the world of what she knew--the Silence, the Doctor, the fact that her parents were missing. She asked her new friend, the glowing being with butterfly wings, to help her get to New York City. It agreed.

 

River arrived at the orphanage she was raised in on 1 November 1969. It looked nearly the same since the last time she was in it. The warnings she had scribbled on the wall were there. The only new thing that was in the orphanage was a Silent priest. Usually it was hard to detect the presence of a Silent priest, but this Silent priest was different. It was already dead.

River opened the Silent priest's mouth. Inside, there were several red rose petals. She kept one of the petals and put it in her diary.

 

That same day, Melody was in Kingsland, Georgia. She was walking along the most direct route to New York City, Interstate 95. She wasn't alone. Melody's butterfly-winged friend was with her. Only Melody could see her butterfly-winged friend. People who happened to see Melody walk near or on Interstate 95 only saw a young girl walking by herself.

Melody was in the town proper to steal a bite to eat from a local restaurant. This allowed a gold car to pull up beside her.

The driver reached across the passenger seat in the car to roll down the window. "Are you lost?" the driver said to Melody.

"No, I'm not lost," Melody said.

"Where are your parents?"

"I don't know."

The wind started to pick up. Oddly, it was around Melody and the car. Everywhere else around the car and Melody was still.

"Are you from the United States? You don't sound like you're from here."

"I'm not from here."

The car started to wobble.

"Where are you from?"

"Space."

"Space? Are you joking?"

"No. I'm fine, sir."

The car tipped over on the driver's side.

 

River didn't have a lot of time to observe the "mysterious" wreck in Kingsland. She quickly scribbled down details on how the car crashed in her diary, fleeing just before the paramedics arrived.

She was there when the car crashed, years ago. She knew how to fill in the rest.

 

Hardeeville, South Carolina. Dunn, North Carolina. Somewhere north of Jarratt, Virginia. Melody's walk north to New York City left a trail of carnage. Flipped cars. People knocked into trees. People with rose petals in their mouths.

River noted each death carefully in her diary. Sometimes she would get local newspaper clippings of these deaths. If she could, she would've stopped Melody from walking with those creatures she considered "friends." But all of these deaths were fixed points in time. It was not worth changing history to save these people from the Fairies.

 

By December 1969 Melody and her "friends" were living in Highbridge Park in New York City. At the time, Highbridge Park and its environs were falling into disarray. People wouldn't notice or care for a child wandering around the park enough to call the police. It was the perfect place for a group of fairies and their Chosen One to live until said Chosen One was ready for the Fairy world.

The Fairies surrounding Melody caused her to forget who she was. Melody forgot that she was trained by the Silence to kill the Doctor, but she also forgot why she was in New York City in the first place.

River walked onto the High Bridge. It was time to save Melody from the monsters, to make sure she'd become River Song in her future.

Melody, who was walking on the bridge, stopped when she saw River. "Who are you?" Melody asked.

"I'm here to save you," River said.

"You're a cop!"

The winds started to pick up on the bridge--and only on the bridge. Melody decided River was a threat. The Fairies were coming to attempt to kill River.

"We both share something in common, Melody." River had to yell over the building winds. "A dislike of cops. And I am certainly not a cop." She pulled out her pistol.

The Fairies coming after River showed their true form to her. They had green skin and dragonfly wings. They appeared to be balding, skinny, and hideous.

"Let her go, you green goblins," River said to the Fairies.

"It's too late." The Fairies had harsh voices. "The child is ours."

"Her destiny isn't to be a Fairy. She isn't your Chosen One. As much as I hate to say this, go find someone else."

"She lives forever."

River laughed. "I wish that was the case."

Two Fairies flew towards River, knocking her down. One of the Fairies got on top of River. Its intention was to choke River with rose petals down her throat. River shot the Fairy dead with her blaster. The other Fairy that knocked her down was shot dead by River shortly thereafter.

"I will keep killing your kind until you let the girl go."

"I don't want to go," Melody said.

"She doesn't want to go," the Fairies said.

River nodded. "Oh, she's going to go. Pity I have to kill more of you." She shot a Fairy that was approaching her. "I'm not like those other humans you've killed. I refuse to be killed by talking dragonflies." She shot two more Fairies after that.

"Why are you killing my friends?" Melody said.

"Do you know what it means to be a Chosen One, Melody?"

"No."

"The Fairies have chosen to protect you now. But soon, they'll take you to their lands and you'll turn into one of them. You'll spend the rest of your life killing random people and collecting children to the Lost Lands just like these sad talking dragonflies."

"What's wrong with that? They care for me. They protect me."

"And I understand that. I know you were taken away from your mum and dad. I know you were experimented on. I know you were trained to kill the Doctor. But you're not going to be a Fairy. You're destined to be someone much more important than a lowly Fairy."

"Who?"

"You're going to be me. I'm Melody Pond from your future."

"Why would I become you? We don't look alike."

"You're going to become one of the galaxy's most notorious archeologists. You're going to learn about different species and different planets. And you're going to save people." River shot a Fairy. "A lot. There are some downsides. You like stealing things, you like shooting things, and you're going to be in and out of prison. But you'll learn the truth about the Doctor. He's going to be one of your best friends." River smiled briefly before noticing and returning to a stoic face. "And you're going to find your parents, if you can wait a few decades. Isn't that so much more exciting than living as a killer dragonfly for all eternity?"

"You know where my parents are?"

"I do. But I can't tell you how to get to them if you're going to run off with the ugly immortal dragonflies. So, have I convinced you enough to leave the Fairies, or do I have to kill more of these horrible things? You can't escape your destiny, Melody."

Melody walked towards River.

"I knew you liked me." River smirked. "Hurry! Get behind me."

Melody ran and hid behind River. 

"Come away, O human child!" The Fairy voices grew louder as Melody retreated from them. "To the waters and the wild, with a faery, hand in hand..."

"'For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.' You said that to Yeats and he made it into a poem." River yawned. "Melody has chosen her destiny over turning into one of you lot. Go find another Chosen One."

"Come away, O human..."

"No!" Melody peeked behind River. "You lied to me! You said you'd help me find Mum and Dad. I want my mum and dad."

"Come away..."

River aimed her pistol at a Fairy. "You're only making this harder on your own kind. Gather your dead and go away."

The remaining Fairies picked up their dead and disappeared. The wind stopped blowing, but snow was falling. A nor'easter was close to New York City. Melody didn't know this, but River knew--Melody was going to die of hypothermia days later, in January 1970. 

River turned to Melody as she put her pistol back in her holster. "I'm sorry, Melody, but soon, you're going to die."

Melody looked at River in shock.

River put on her hallucinogenic lipstick. "It's okay. You're going to regenerate. You won't be little Melody anymore. You _can't_ be little Melody anymore. You'd violate the laws of time if you tried. And you can't remember meeting me."

River kissed Melody on her forehead. River turned Melody around so she faced Highbridge Park. 

"You can remember this. When you find Mels, tell her two things. Tell her to be in Leadworth, England, by 1996. I know that's like, what, twenty-seven years from now? But I promise you, Melody, it'll be worth the wait. And tell her to focus on a dress size when the time's right. The rest will follow. Goodbye, Melody."

River used her vortex manipulator to disappear from the High Bridge.

Melody headed towards Highbridge Park. She knew the Fairies had left her, but she forgot about River saving her from them. And she forgot about attempting to get on national television to attempt to find her parents. Trying to find shelter from the snow was her first priority.

The first person Melody saw after the Fairy confrontation on the High Bridge was an African-American toddler. The toddler was being carried by her mother as they both were attempting to avoid the snow.

 

After fighting rebel Silent priests and accidentally kissing the Doctor for the first time, River was back in Stormcage. She had no time to stay there, though. The Silent priests reminded her of two things. One, she had to go back to America in 1969 to document Fairies. Before all of the Torchwood branches were shuttered in the United Kingdom, they had extensive files on Fairies. And even then, their files did admit they still haven't figured out how they operated on Earth. Two, she had to save herself from the Fairies. Otherwise she'd be battling a Doctor--maybe her Doctor, maybe another Doctor--to try and restore several timelines. It'd be far more easier if she saved herself and spared the Doctor and other interested parties the trouble of a broken timeline.

River put on a white shirt, herringbone bell-bottom pants, and a multicolored scarf. She grabbed her blaster, diary, and vortex manipulator, and made her way to a certain orphanage in Florida on 1 November 1969.


End file.
